Putting in a mention of Studio One. Found it really easy to pick up as I found the UI rather intuitive. I tried FL but really couldn't get the hang of it. Tried bitwig and Ableton too and had the same problem. Like Miszt said though, trial them all. You'll find something you'll like. Different strokes for different folks.

sometimes using what your friends use can be very useful, coz it gives you people to learn with, but it can also mean you pick up their mistakes, so its a 2 sided coin really, if your friends are really good producers, then it might be a good option for you (FL can produce amazing sounds, Spor, for eg)

I know a few producers who use Reason, but they have all recently switched to Ableton, they found reason was too restrictive, and a bit old/outdated sounding, i think they might now have VST support, but i cant be sure, its one to consider if it does support VST's now tho

sometimes using what your friends use can be very useful, coz it gives you people to learn with, but it can also mean you pick up their mistakes, so its a 2 sided coin really, if your friends are really good producers, then it might be a good option for you (FL can produce amazing sounds, Spor, for eg)

I know a few producers who use Reason, but they have all recently switched to Ableton, they found reason was too restrictive, and a bit old/outdated sounding, i think they might now have VST support, but i cant be sure, its one to consider if it does support VST's now tho

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Thanks for that. I think im going to try the 3 i posted in my previous post then. Just out of interest what do you use and why ?

sometimes using what your friends use can be very useful, coz it gives you people to learn with, but it can also mean you pick up their mistakes, so its a 2 sided coin really, if your friends are really good producers, then it might be a good option for you (FL can produce amazing sounds, Spor, for eg)

I know a few producers who use Reason, but they have all recently switched to Ableton, they found reason was too restrictive, and a bit old/outdated sounding, i think they might now have VST support, but i cant be sure, its one to consider if it does support VST's now tho

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Where's that guy to talk about eficiency?

To the OP: you're doing this right, but I'd include the other DAWs people are mentioning here as well.

FL is the most popular because it's the easiest to crack and have tons of tutorials on youtube. So a lot of bedroom producers and producers wannabes have it and didn't pay a single penny for it.

I use Ableton Live Suite, for so many reasons, it contains loads of amazing synths and FX, which can all be chained up like a gigantic modular synth, the work flow is very fast, it offers great live performance options, its pretty lightweight (I get far more mileage out of Ableton than i do from equivalent projects in Cubase for eg); it also comes with excellent sample instruments including multi-sampled drum kits and all sorts of extra stuff

the racking system is probably my favourite part of it, you can build your own versions of any synth VST available, I've got my own versions of Massive, Albino3 and Sylenth, aswell as tons of other custom made racks

what Ableton doesn't do, is provide you with a sexy looking interface (although personally I love the minimalist style) and doesnt provide one-knob buttons to do complex things, it requires you to properly learn and understand the processes behind synthesis and FX, which is a very useful thing to know, it opens up far more possibilities for you, once you have learnt them - and its really not hard to learn, because all the FX and synths are based on the same interface design, you pick things up very quickly, and don't have to learn a new interface every time you add something into a project

Each DAW has its own good points and bad points. I use Cubase and always have done, apart from the very early years with Fruity. I also use logic at college and at some pals studios which doesn't slow down the music writing at any drastic rate.

I dont think looking at well known producers and saying because that artist uses said DAW then i must also do this, production skills and experience count for a lot regardless of the system being used, time spent playing with DAW is what its all about.

I think im going to make a start this weekend trying them out but im sure it will be no quick thing as I want to give them a good trial. Probably take me over xmas and new year.

Im fairly confident im not going to be the next big thing but its something ive always wanted to have a go at. I took the dj root but the production side of it soon started to creep in especially when I noticed the main dnb dj's in the scene have at some point made a track.

Warning lots of incoming threads about how do I make a bish bash bosh on my plugin.

And again thanks for all the reply's If I remember to I will post back and let you know how I got on.

I started with Ableton and I loved how easy is to do stuff with it. It's very intuitive. Although, I don't like it's stock plug in's.

Nowadays I use mostly Logic Pro X. It has great value for the current price tag. It does some stuff Ableton doesn't do, but I can also say it the other way around so I use them interchangeably as it suits my needs.

Just try them out, and then pick one. Once you picked it, stick with your decision and learn your DAW. That's the most important thing you can do imo